The CEO of Carl's Jr., Andy Puzder, has been inspired by the 100-percent automated restaurant, Eatsa, as he looks for ways to deal with rising minimum wages.
"With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs,"
he says.
"You're going to see automation not just in airports and
grocery stores, but in restaurants."
Puzder doesn't believe in [the
progressive idea of] raising the minimum wage.
"Does it really help if
Sally makes $3 more an hour if Suzie has no job?
If you're making labor
more expensive, and automation less expensive -- this is not rocket
science," says Puzder.
What comes as a challenge is automating employee
tasks.
This is where he draws the line and doesn't think that it's
likely any machine could perform such work.
But for more rote tasks like
grilling a burger or taking an order, technology may be even more
precise than human employees.
"They're always polite, they always
upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's
never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case,"
says Puzder in regard to replacing employees with machines.
Eatsa, the mostly automated healthy, fast food bowl shop
based in San Francisco, has inspired the CEO of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s
to rethink the traditional workforce—by replacing all humans with
robots.
"You pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person."
"With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the
number of jobs," he says, predicting the automation trend will likely
extend beyond the restaurant industry. "You're going to see automation
not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants."
"Millennials like not seeing people," said the CEO. "I've been inside
restaurants where we've installed ordering kiosks ... and I've actually
seen young people waiting in line to use the kiosk where there's a
person standing behind the counter, waiting on nobody."
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